Ezekiel 23:1–21

Samaria and Jerusalem

23The Lord spoke his word to me, saying: ²“Human, a woman had two daughters. ³While they were young, they went to Egypt and became prostitutes. They let men touch and hold their breasts. ⁴The older girl was named Oholah, and her sister was named Oholibah. They became my wives and had sons and daughters. Oholah is Samaria, and Oholibah is Jerusalem. ⁿ

⁵“While still my wife, Samaria had sexual relations with other men. She had great sexual desire for her lovers, men from Assyria. The Assyrians were warriors and ⁶wore blue uniforms. They were all handsome young captains and lieutenants riding on horseback. ⁷Samaria became a prostitute for all the important men in Assyria and made herself unclean with all the idols of everyone she desired. ⁸She continued the prostitution she began in Egypt. When she was young, she had slept with men, and they touched her breasts and had sexual relations with her.

⁹“So I handed her over to her lovers, the Assyrians, that she wanted so badly. ¹⁰They stripped her naked and took away her sons and daughters. Then they killed her with a sword. Women everywhere began talking about how she had been punished.

¹¹“Her sister Jerusalem saw what happened, but she became worse than her sister in her sexual desire and prostitution. ¹²She also desired the Assyrians, who were all soldiers in beautiful uniforms—handsome young captains and lieutenants riding horses. ¹³I saw that both girls were alike; both were prostitutes.

¹⁴“But Jerusalem went even further. She saw carvings of Babylonian men on a wall. They wore red ¹⁵and had belts around their waists and turbans on their heads. They all looked like chariot officers born in Babylonia. ¹⁶When she saw them, she wanted to have sexual relations with them and sent messengers to them in Babylonia. ¹⁷So these Babylonian men came and had sexual relations with her and made her unclean. After that, she became sick of them. ¹⁸But she continued her prostitution so openly that everyone knew about it. And I finally became sick of her, as I had her sister. ¹⁹But she remembered how she was a young prostitute in Egypt, so she took part in even more prostitution. ²⁰She wanted men who behaved like animals in their sexual desire. ²¹In the same way you desired to do the sinful things you had done in Egypt. There men touched and held your young breasts.